1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to magnitude sorting among a number of signals. In particular, this invention relates to magnitude sorting of a number of signals in an ascending or descending ordered manner governed by the clock controlling signals.
2. Description of Related Art
Ordering of magnitudes for large and small among a number of electrical signals having different measured magnitudes is necessary among many digital applications. One method of magnitude sorting relies on software schemes that are conducted on number processing devices such as digital computers. This is not suitable for real-time processing of signals as the computer program embodying the software scheme cannot obtain its sorted result until after the conclusion of the program processing. A time-lagged result of such software-based sorting schemes has also placed limitations to possible areas of application of this category of magnitude sorting.
On the other hand, however, current hardware sorter circuitry can only differentiate either the largest or the smallest, or both, of the compared signals among the signals. To sort the signals in an orderly ascending or descending sequence, these conventional sorters must perform a number of subsequent sorting sessions to subsequently pick out the largest, or smallest, signal in a processed pool of the signals. Within these subsequent sessions the identified largest or smallest signal is removed from the next processed pool. This hardware sorting scheme has a circuitry scale that is substantially proportional to the number of processed signals. In other words, the larger the total number of sorted signals, the larger the scale of the sorter circuitry. Meanwhile, the more the sorted signals, the longer the delay time before the final sorted result can be obtained. This is obvious since the more the sorted signals, the more the maximum- or the minimum-magnitude signal-identifying sessions will be required. Thus, such hardware sorters, are by no means suitable for real-time applications as well.